And here we are, the final chapter of 'Welcome to the Afterlife!' I'll save all the crappy thank yous for the end. So please, enjoy! I don't own anything!

To die serving her master... that was the death she had always desired. He was a god in her eyes, and he deserved no less that total reverence. She had worked so hard to become a part of his inner circle of Death Eaters. She was more than a mere follower, more than those interfering pests that joined to save themselves from death by his hands...

She smirked in spite of herself. She knew that the inferior Weasley woman couldn't kill her. There was absolutely no way that her master would let it happen. He would kill her, if she didn't first. And yet the traitorous red-haired woman fired that final curse to end it all, she still had total faith in the man... no, men weren't immortal, and mankind should have been honored to find that such a great lord used to be one of their own filthy kind... But still she knew, knew that her master would not let her die in vain.

She wished it weren't so sunny. She wished it were dark, as if beautiful, haunting shadows were casting their wonderful blackness over her... she wished she could once again see the crimson of her master's snakelike eyes... But no, instead she found herself looking into the sparkling eyes of a man she had once considered a brother, but now she thought him to be no more than trash found on the side of the road.

"...Sirius," she spat, trying to keep a calm appearance. Yet even she could not have predicted the obvious sorrow that echoed long after the word had been spoken.

"Bellatrix."

Bellatrix. She wasn't Bella anymore, just Bellatrix. What ever happened to the sibling-like relationship they once shared? Why had it all gone wrong? Was it because she became a Death Eater, then Sirius started to be ashamed to be a part of the Black family?

No. If anyone had the right to be ashamed, it was her. Associating himself with blood traitors and Mudbloods, she had every right to reject her cousin. But then, she noticed, it wasn't just Sirius there. Her daughter was there as well, the daughter of her sister that had betrayed her just like Sirius had.

"Aunt Bella- I mean, Bellatrix?"

She cursed silently. What did she do to deserve meeting these people as soon as she got to the Afterlife? Why couldn't she have been sent somewhere else? There had to be a reason she ended up in the same place these people did... maybe she was expected to show her family the true benefits of being a part of the Dark Lord's army! Yes, that would have to be it...

"I highly doubt so, Ms. Lestrange."

Albus Dumbledore. Dang. She felt incredibly out of place here, as she noticed the others around her. Lily and James Potter, a Hogwarts student, and...

"You!" she hissed menacingly at the cowering form of Peter Pettigrew. "How dare you show your face in front of me? After you betray our Lord and let the Potter boy escape! I should just slit your throat right here!"

Dumbledore coughed. "I don't believe that would have any effect, Ms. Lestrange, for all of us here are already dead. Do you see what position you are in? Your whole life, you have relied on power to intimidate people into doing your will. But you see, here, you can't do any harm to us, because we are dead. There is nothing that could harm us. You are powerless here, so I advise you not to make us your enemies here as you did during life."

As much as she hated to admit it, the Muggle-loving old fool was right. 'I advise you not to make us your enemies here as you did during life...' That was what he had said. So... here, did she have a second chance? Yet she couldn't use it. She had to remain faithful to her Lord, otherwise there would be horrible consequences...

Until she remembered. She could not be harmed here. So... if she wanted to, she could leave the Dark Lord's side and join the Order of the Phoenix...

"You could, Ms. Lestrange, if you wanted to."

He was righteous. He had power. He was doing what would make the world better, or, as that over-trusting former Headmaster would have said, 'the greater good.' He could rid the world of Muggles, Mudbloods and half-bloods... It would be a pureblood utopia, and he would be the ruler, stamping out any rebellion. He was the most powerful wizard in the world. He was invincible.

And yet as that Potter boy spat out nonsense, as he was waiting for the perfect moment to end the boy's life, he wondered if he was wrong. He wondered if Draco Malfoy really was the master of the Elder Wand, not Snape... He wondered if maybe the boy's nonsense was really logic that he, the greatest Dark Wizard of all time, had been to stubborn and proud to see.

Pride. It was that pride that had him keep going, to keep fighting. Of course, there was no way that the boy was right... he had thought over this plan tens, no, hundreds of times. There were no flaws, no loopholes, no gaps of any sort. Unless...

There was no way the boy could have possibly succeeded in destroying every Horcrux. He knew there were some lost... but four or five at most. The diadem, he knew, was safe, for nobody other than himself ever knew of the Room of Hidden Things.

And yet he knew he was lying to himself. He knew he couldn't win, because the prophecy had predicted that the boy would have the power to defeat him. Love. A pathetic emotion. He had never felt it in his life. Respect, yes, but not something as petty as love. It was a useless feeling. It never got anyone anywhere good in the world. Take his mother, for example; she loved someone, and she ended up dead because of it. Of course, if she had not been foolish enough to love, he would not be here to rid the world of it. Good, evil, right, wrong... power. That was all that mattered. If you had power on your side, you could easily triumph over those who only had love. That's what he thought.

Then why was he losing? In sixteen years of planning, sneaking, attacking, firing curses, jinxes and spells, he had failed to bring any fatal harm to one boy. Dumbledore had said countless times that it was because of the boy's mother's love that he survived. Lies. There was no way that love could save a life. No way that love could protect the boy from death for sixteen years.

"Avada Kadavra!"

And then he was over.

Laughing. That's what he heard. Laughing. He knew this laughter, though, and it was laughter he was, if possible, delighted to hear again.

"You think I would betray the Dark Lord and join your side? How foolish!" Bellatrix cried out gleefully. She had a mad grin on her face and was sneering infuriatingly at the others surrounding her. Yep. That was his Bella.

He smiled and walked over to her.

"Bella... turning down an offer to join the weak? Did they offer to protect you, like they did so many others? I'm impressed, Bella... very impressed. Perhaps I shall reward you by destroying these fools who dare to disturb us..."

And before anyone could say anything, Voldemort whipped his wand out of his pocket and aimed it at the closest target: Lily Potter.

But as he tried to shout out a spell, he felt a curious sensation running through his blood. He couldn't move his mouth... he tried to cast a nonverbal spell, but his thoughts were jumbled and he couldn't think straight... he tried to lower his wand arm, to Apparate away... but he couldn't move. He had no control whatsoever... he wasn't used to that. He didn't like it.

Dumbledore smiled sadly. "I already explained to Ms. Lestrange that you can do no harm to others here. She, at least, had enough sense not to try. Though it appears that your pride and hunger for power drove all logical thoughts from your mind. You have been paralyzed. Permanently."

And as he felt himself become more and more immobile, he knew that in both the World of the Living and the Afterlife, witches and wizards alike were celebrating the downfall of Tom Riddle.

The end! Yay! Thank you all for reading and reviewing all of these crappy chapters, slow updates, and my horrible writing! (Though I must admit, this is pretty good compared to SNSTBH... the first two chapters of that still make my eyes bleed.) Anyway... now this author must go into hibernation, for she got little to no break between her two multi-chapter stories. And for one last time, please review!